Before I start throwing down, I have to give props to the sites that kept me awake and interested — those unexpected blossoms — as I struggled through the fields of same old same.

Most appreciated, schizophrenic, and heroic in its own way was tangledwing — a blog whose mysterious auteur provides, in each post, both a sweet professional high-resolution image (often sized for use as computer wallpaper) and a link to an environmental news story or two.

It’s a combination that’s bizarre at first but really grows on you. …more

We worry about pennies costing more than they’re worth, but at least we are not burdened by golden quarters. (But then, I guess, the quarters would cease being quarters and become a store of value. I’ll leave this for the economics blogs I reviewed this week.) The reason I say ‘golden quarter’ is that my sojourn into blogs monikered Id – Sl was truly inspiring, so I think this section of the alphabet must be enchanted.

People with awful jobs often have great senses of humor. Try hanging out with some longtime jail guards or social workers and getting them talking. They’ve seen it all, man, and they just have to laugh about it. If you’re at a conference of psychiatrists, crash the “forensics” table: the docs that deal with really sick violent people all day. The probability is high you’ll have a blast — while over at the “therapists to the healthy and alienated” table, that p fast approaches zero.

That’s what I was thinking this week as I read through recent entries at two surprisingly entertaining sites about economics. …more

It’s been a long road, fraught with botched triple salchows, flesh-colored wardrobe malfunctions, and ice-shattering “Why me”s, but we are finally ready to share with you the enviro blog reviews from the first quarter of the alphabet.

I’m sure you’re all on tenterhooks waiting to see the outcome of our recently announced, completely unfair, arbitrary, and unasked-for battle of the environmental blogs. Who’s got the class to win this skating competition, and who’s standing in the shadows with a crowbar?

Just like those cardinals who confab to elevate a new pope, our progress so far has been a model of, um, restraint. A Google spreadsheet has been generated to record the arbitrary ratings which will separate the enviroblogical Nancy Kerrigans from the Tonya Hardings. All the blog names and URLs have been alphabetized nicely, which gives the project a pleasing air of officialdom.

Now that all is in order, we need to simply READ, and wait for the hand of God, I mean the tendrils of Gaia, to direct us.

In the meantime I’ve imperiously decided to eliminate a few sites from the running. …more

When you start a a new writing project it’s natural to spend a lot of time checking out the competition. Who has little to say, and who awes you with their wit and savvy?

And for myself, I spend time thinking about how this genre of writing can and should be different than journalism, magazine features, etc.

Here at bottleworld we’re trying, slowly but surely, to do something original and worthwhile, and onoccasion I think we succeed. At the same time we’ve initiated a major new project: a review of other environmental blogs out there. We’re not just going to list them, we’re actually going to read them and rate them according to some insidious system of our own devising, and find the champions, be they ever so humble, like the good old Kenora Thistles.

Yes, it’s a competition, with the prize being “props”! And maybe a bag of Stumptown coffee. I’m not sure yet what the prizes and criteria are going to be, but I’ve discovered this in my explorations so far: …more